I drained the oil from the transfer box housing - its ATF, BUT a lot of water in it
Bit of a bugger really and may cause a rethink of my plans. No traces of rust, but is there damage to the gears and bearings?
I removed the one inspection plate / bearing housing that I could find
The bearing looks OK, a lot of emulsified oil in it. I had a look through the oil filler plug, and the drive chain seems OK, no trace of rust, but its what is hidden that matters. The front diff was Ok despite having water in it, but the rear one was U/S. So the conundrum is what to do, either strip and inspect the transfer housing, making all the gaskets, and hoping I can get it apart (and back together again!) without a manual, or refill with oil, drive it 500 miles and change the oil and see what happens. It will either be OK, or it will fall apart and what damage will it cause? I am going to mull this over for a few days before making a decision.
So I didn't mate the engine to the gearbox, but contented myself working on a few small but essential jobs - fitted the engine mounts (NOS from ebay) - I didn't realise that original left hand mounts have a void in the rubber that the repro ones don't have. Also fitted the auto gearbox to engine strengthners.
Then as I need to fit the steering column so we can manover the car, stripped and inspected this - no play in the shaft bearings so I am leaving the originals in place. However all the column electrical switches had seized so I stripped and lubricated these - good job they were hand made by Lucas, at least they are repairable, you couldn't do this with modern ones.
Then got the ABS vacuum valve out - I had stripped and cleaned this internally ages ago, and freed it off, but the case was a mess, mainly because it was covered with Zeibart fluid
here it is after cleaning but during derusting
So thats it for today while I decide what to do with the gearbox
681 hours now, 7 worked today.
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